I'll admit that I've mostly tried to avoid writing about this, but everyone's talking about it, so I kind of have to. Manny Pacquiao -- well, sort of Manny Pacquiao -- invoked a pretty big outrage from a lot of folks for a hard-line stance he supposedly took on gay marriage. In an article I'm not going to link because I'm not into giving extra penny clicks to dangerously irresponsible stuff like this, Pacquiao was asked about his stance on gay marriage, or gays in general or whatever (I'm not reading it again -- oh no, now I'M being "irresponsible"), and needless to say, it wasn't kind.
What made it really bad was that the author quoted Leviticus, which was then picked up as Pacquiao quoting Leviticus, spawning hundreds of internet articles slamming Pacquiao, or leading to readers condemning Pacquiao's quotes.
Then it turned out Pacquiao never quoted Leviticus, never said gays should be put to death, never really said much at all that we in the States don't hear from at least half of our own politicians and their followers, which wasn't exactly easy to make out when reading the original article. The original author then typed up another piece, in which he accepted no responsibility and simply blamed "biased" writers for mangling his sloppy mess of an article. More attention for him. Yaaay.
Golden Boy Promotions signed current interim WBA junior welterweight titlist Johan Perez to a contract on Monday, and it now appears as though the 28-year-old Venezuelan will be featured on the Robert Guerrero vs Selcuk Aydin undercard in San Jose on July 28.
Perez (15-0-1, 12 KO) is a very interesting signing by GBP, a quality fighter in his prime years who beefs up their roster at 140/147 going forward. He doesn't project as a star player or anything, but right now he's a 5'11" guy fighting at 140 pounds, and physically could be a matchup issue if he's able to compete against better opponents. He does have a few solid wins, but nothing remarkable thus far.
A couple of days ago we took our first look at the Manny Pacquiao side of the upcoming HBO 24/7 series, dedicated to Pacquiao's June 9 fight with Timothy Bradley, and now, here's a look at the Bradley camp.
I honestly did find this quote interesting:
"I think the fans see me -- something a little bit different. As opposed to most people going away to camp, you know, going up to Big Bear or going up in the high mountains for two months at a time, leaving their families. Well I'm here with my family. I've done this my whole career and it's worked. If it ain't broke, why fix it?"
Timothy Bradley faces Manny Pacquiao on June 9 in Las Vegas, live on HBO pay-per-view, in the biggest fight of the 28-year-old American's career to date. In the weeks leading up to the fight, we'll have Q&A sessions with the fighters, courtesy HBO. Here's Bradley's second entry. See Also: Bradley's best and worst memories in boxing.
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What do you like to do when you are not training for a fight? Do you play or watch other sports? Do you have any particular role models?
"Even though I'm a world champion fighter I enjoy off seasons like other professional athletes and I like to make the most of my free time. Like any other sports fan, I enjoy watching football and basketball on television as well as spending time with friends and family.
Gennady Golovkin's team says that he's been trying to force Felix Sturm into a fight for two years running, and now they're trying to make that bout a reality by September 30. Dan Rafael at ESPN.com reports that Golovkin is itching for the fight he feels should have happened by now, and his new promoters at K2 are working on forcing the WBA to finally push "super champion" Sturm into a mandatory title defense.
From Tom Loeffler of K2:
"At this point, Sturm is running out of options. Sturm, at this time, holds the record for being a champion the longest without having a mandatory defense. Two years ago, Gennady was the interim champion and Sturm was the WBA champion. Sturm then got elevated to super champion. For the last two years, Gennady has been trying to fight him."
Golovkin (23-0, 20 KO) fought on May 12, smashing unqualified challenger Makoto Fuchigami in just three rounds of a blatant mismatch. But a win is a win, and there's no doubt that the 29-year-old Kazakh fighter is as ready as he's going to get.
The true questions now, are whether or not Sturm wants to fight him, and whether or not the WBA will actually force the issue as they've allegedly promised.
Antonio Tarver has never really been one to dream small. The man who became one of boxing's top names following his 2004 knockout of pound-for-pound king Roy Jones Jr has been thought finished more than once since then, but has kept himself in the game and is currently regarded as one of the best cruiserweights in the world.
Following his defeat of Jones, Tarver promptly was upset by Glen Johnson, but got that win back, beat Jones again, and then was derailed by Bernard Hopkins in 2006. Many thought Tarver, by that time 37, was closing in on his own final days in the ring. A year out of the ring led to shaky comeback wins over Elvir Muriqi and Danny Santiago, where he looked badly faded and like a fighter who had little left, even against glorified club battlers.
[ Related: Tarver vs Kayode Press Conference Quotes/Photos ]
A win over Clinton Woods gave Tarver a new lease on his career, but that was followed by two one-sided defeats to Chad Dawson in 2008 and 2009. A one-fight heavyweight experiment against Nagy Aguilera met mixed reviews at best, so Tarver dropped down to cruiserweight, and pretty well destroyed Danny Green in July of last year.
Though he's fought just two times in the last five years and has decisively lost in both outings, 40-year-old Winky Wright says he's coming to win on June 2, when the veteran fights for the first time since 2009 against up-and-coming prospect Peter Quillin on Showtime, part of the network's big four-fight card from the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.
Wright (51-5-1, 25 KO) was last seen getting virtually shut out by Paul Williams on HBO, and though Bad Left Hook scored it closer than the official judges did, it was without question a dominant win by Williams, who made Wright look old, slow, and a bit tired in the ring, outworking the defensive master over 12 rounds.
As time wore on in the fight, Wright looked less and less like the fighter of his prime, who twice defeated Shane Mosley and demolished Puerto Rican icon Felix "Tito" Trinidad in three straight fights in 2004-05. Following a draw with then-unbeaten middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in 2006, Wright began to drift out of the spotlight, though nobody saw it happening at the time. He defeated Ike Quartey in December 2006, then moved up to a 170-pound catchweight to face Bernard Hopkins in July 2007. Hopkins won a pretty wide 12-round decision.
Andre Ward, who holds the WBC and WBA super middleweight titles, has reportedly contacted the WBC about reinstating him as full "world champion" rather than "champion in recess," according to promoter Yvon Michel, who was trying to get his fighter, Adonis Stevenson, into a vacant title fight.
This nearly confirms two things: Ward vs Chad Dawson is going to happen on September 8, which is pretty much only lacking an official announcement at this point, and the fight will be at 168 pounds, as Dawson will move down from light heavyweight as promised to make the fight a reality.
The WBC had ordered a vacant title fight between Anthony Dirrell and Nikola Sjekloca, but Dirrell suffered injuries in a motorcycle crash that reportedly will keep him out about six months.
